Features

ScanSnap Cloud for the Classroom

Tuesday, June 28, 2016

(Rated: 5.00 out of 5)

My inbox, real or virtual, is just the first stop to an ongoing daily struggle to manage all of the great work my students do in class as well as at home.

15 years ago I had a bin for each class and every day I would clear the class’s bin into my accordion folder and then carry the papers home to read and respond. Today, I have Google folders and can sort the shared docs quickly, but this only works on electronic documents. One thing I have learned in my tech integration journey is that My Paperless Classroom needs paper.

While I love the flexibility of paper in the classroom, I struggle with organization. I love using electronic documents in class because I can always find them. ScanSnap Cloud is a tool that enables me to get my students’ paper-based work into my favorite cloud storage platform.

How Many Clicks?
With my ScanSnap iX500 and ScanSnap Cloud functionality I can easily drop a stack of papers into the scanner, hit the scan button and be confident that they will be delivered to my Google drive account, named with the date and time.

Set Destination for File Types
ScanSnap Cloud lets me designate what type of document goes where, so I can scan business cards and receipts to Evernote, but when a document drops into the scanner, it gets sent to Google Drive. Before class begins I can set ScanSnap Cloud to deliver documents to a specific Google Drive folder. I have one for each class. When the students come in they drop their work in the scanner, hit scan and take the work with them. So my students can turn in their paper-based homework via the scanner and still have it in their hands for class.

What Happens Next, Response
Once the files are in my Google Drive, I can respond to them and share the document back with the student. This is the workflow I do with all of my assignments. ScanSnap Cloud allows me to merge my digital and paper workflows to simplify record keeping. By retaining the original documents, I have all of my students’ work available, all of the time.

Reflections and Portfolios
Since I can capture all of my students’ work, they will have many more options when it comes to building their portfolios. Using the scanner in class makes it simpler to capture work in process, and since we say we value process over product, it’s great to have process pieces to include in their portfolios.

With the arrival of ScanSnap Cloud, the scanner can finally work as a “smart inbox” and free me from worrying about where I left that stack of papers.